GALERIE PERROTIN, ONE OF THE BIGGEST PLAYERS IN PARIS
FOR YEARS, WILL EXHIBIT AT THE 2015 DALLAS ART FAIR.
ust a couple of years after making a splash on the New York scene
with a gallery-opening party that included heavyweight gallery
artists Kaws, Daniel Arsham, and Takashi Murakami, along with
guests the likes of Pharrell Williams, Galerie Perrotin, founded in
Paris, will make its debut turn at the Dallas Art Fair. With 26 years
under his belt, the gallery’s youthful founder Emmanuel Perrotin
began his career as a gallery assistant to Charles Cartwright at the age
of 17. Here, Anna-Sophia van Zweden catches up with Senior Director
Peggy Leboeuf about Galerie Perrotin exhibiting at the Dallas Art
Fair in April.
Anna-Sophia van Zweden (ASVZ): When did Galerie Perrotin open?
Peggy Leboeuf (PL): Emmanuel opened his first gallery in 1989
at the age of 21, “les jeudis du 44 rue de Turbigo” (aka Thursdays
at rue de Turbigo) in an apartment in the Marais nearby the Centre
Pompidou. Since 1989, he has moved to larger locations in Paris nine
times with the aim of maintaining and giving increasingly stimulating
environments for its artists. The opening in quick succession of the
New York, Paris, and Hong Kong galleries is typical of Perrotin’s
dynamic, risk-taking style.
ASVZ: What was the art climate like then?
PL: The art climate back then was certainly different, with its
own challenges. Paris gallerist Marie-Hélène Montenay lent Perrotin
$200,000 and set him up with a proper space. And Damien Hirst,
whose work Perrotin first saw at a group show in London in 1989,
agreed to let him transport two of his pieces to Paris on top of his
mother’s Peugeot 205. Murakami met Perrotin in 1994 at an art fair in
Yokohama, Japan, where the cash-strapped young dealer’s entire stock
consisted of artworks he’d brought in his luggage. The art climate now
is certainly a lot less “rough and tumble,” though it presents its own
challenges and requires a lot more capital to accomplish things.
ASVZ: Describe your art education.
PL: I have been working with Emmanuel Perrotin since 1998, which
is an education in itself. I studied for six years in Fine Arts Aesthetics
and Art History at the Sorbonne University in Paris, and I had been an
assistant photographer for two years before joining the gallery.
ASVZ: Why the Dallas Art Fair?
PL: Since we just opened in New York in the Fall of 2013, we are just
starting to explore the fairs in North America, and we think it could be
a great project to expand our collector and viewer base in Dallas. The
Dallas Art District is very active with the presence of major museums
such as Dallas Museum of Art, Nasher Sculpture Center, and the Crow
Collection of Asian Art, and in the presence of buildings designed
by such celebrated architects as IM Pei, Thom Mayne (Morphosis),
Renzo Piano, and Rem Koohlaas. We are also interested to collaborate
or continue collaboration with Dallas-based arts organizations such
as SOLUNA, the new art and music festival organized by the Dallas
Symphony Orchestra, and the charity event MTV RE:DEFINE.
There is also the added gravitas of important private collections like
The Rachofsky Collection and the Goss-Michael Foundation among
others. And, of course you, and curatorial advisor Muriel Quancard,
decided to give the gallery a great opportunity to present the work
of Claude Rutault. We are working on a very exciting project as well,
so it made it more important for us to establish a presence in Dallas.
ASVZ: Which artists are you bringing to the fair?
PL: Some abstract paintings by Bernard Frize, Jesus Rafael Soto,
Claude Rutault, JR; a glass figurative sculpture by Daniel Arsham…; a
“Flower painting” by Takashi Murakami… P
J FRENCH CLASS
WITH ANNA-SOPHIA VAN ZWEDEN
FAIR TRADE
Top left: Bernard Frize, Vestal, 2008, acrylic and resin on canvas, 86. 4 x 70
3/4 in. © Frize/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris, 2015,
Courtesy Galerie Perrotin. Top right: Bernard Frize, Dela, 2013, acrylic and
resin on canvas, 45 3/4 x 34 1/16 in., © Frize/Artists Rights Society (ARS),
New York/ADAGP, Paris, 2015, Courtesy Galerie Perrotin. Above: Anna-Sophia van Zweden at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Sol LeWitt, Wall
Drawing #1084, 2003. First drawn by Asmir Ademagic and acrylic on wall.
Gift of Sol Le Witt and Carl Andre, 2003
ABOUT ANNA-SOPHIA VAN ZWEDEN
Growing up in Amsterdam to a soundtrack of
the Concertgebouw, SOLUNA Director of Festival
Advancement Anna-Sophia van Zweden is intimately
familiar with the artistic world, and has followed her
passion for contemporary art on a journey that has
taken her around the globe. Educated at Amsterdam’s
Reinwardt Academie, van Zweden has collaborated
on significant projects including Eyes Wide Open at the
Stedelijk Museum, and the partnership project between
the Dallas Contemporary and the Goss-Michael
Foundation, MTV RE:DEFINE. She is currently
studying at Sotheby’s Institute in New York. P
